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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Generation gap

I think it's safe to assume that everyone is aware of the life cycle of most plant species: a plant grows, matures and produces flowers; the flowers produce seeds; the seed germinates and grows. And the cycle begins again.

But what if one important process is missing?

Those who have Red gingers might know what I'm talking about. This behavior is quite new to us since it's the first time it happened to our Red ginger plant. And I'm quite delightfully surprised with this peculiar behavior.

The flowers of the Red ginger with with new "seedlings" growing on them.

One would think that the Red ginger flowers should produce seeds first then wither. Instead, while still quite fresh, some of the flowers sprouted young Red gingers, completely skipping one important step.

Mom took the young shoots and planted them in individual containers. A new generation of Red gingers are now happily growing in the nursery, a welcome addition to our growing number of Red gingers.

The Red ginger "seedlings' transplanted to individual containers.

Wouldn't it be nice if all flowering plants are like that? We won't need to grow plants from seeds anymore. Now that's what I call a generation gap... I mean germination gap.